White bears are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than humans

A recent study of polar white bears shows that their ability to avoid cardiovascular disease is many times better than humans, despite their being one of the world's fattest animals.

Eline Lorenzen, one of the researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, said: " The life of a white bear revolves around fat . When they were young, they breastfed up to 30 percent fat, and when they grew up. In addition, they mainly feed on fat from their mammal prey, such as seals, which have a very thick layer of fat under their skin, and because their habitats do not allow them access to clean water most of the time. So they have to rely on endocrine fluid - a byproduct of fat metabolism ".

Lorenzen and colleagues studied the genetic samples of 79 white bears in Greenland and 10 brown bears from different locations around the world to find out why the white bear must evolve to load more muscle fat. can.

Photo: Discovery News

First, they found that white bears and brown bears branched out less than 500,000 years ago, much later than the previous hypothesis that the two species separated five million years ago.

"In that little time, the white bear has adapted to the harsh living conditions in the Arctic Sea and settled in one of the world's most difficult climates , " said Rasmus Nielsen, a researcher. Another study in Berkeley said.

Half of the body weight of white bears is fat, and their blood cholesterol levels are sufficient to cause serious cardiovascular diseases in humans.

Nielsen and his team also found that mutations in cardiovascular function have allowed white bears to rapidly evolve a high-fat diet without increasing the risk of heart disease. A gene called APOB plays an important role in the transport of cholesterol from blood into cells, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease in white bears.

"The involvement of the gene in the diet with increasing amounts of fat and cholesterol in white bears has never been mentioned before. This will certainly encourage us to study the genetic causes of the disease. cardiovascular in humans " , co-author Eske Willerslev of Copenhagen University shared.

The study also opens up hope that the white bear possesses a key gene that can help people treat cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the protection of this animal is essential.

Heart disease may not knock them out, but the deterioration of the habitat in the Arctic may. It is estimated that the number of white bears worldwide is currently only about 20,000-25,000.